Are Your Dreams Big Enough?Sample

How To Beat Depression If You’re Discouraged About Your Calling

Do you feel depressed or discouraged about your calling? If so, today’s devotional will show you from the book of Proverbs how you can beat depression so you can move forward into your dreams.

There are any number of causes for depression and an equal number of potential cures. In this devotional, I’m only addressing one cause of depression: the depression you experience when you long to walk in your destiny, but you are not doing so.

It’s the depression you experience when you have no opportunity. The depression you experience when you feel trapped, hemmed in, forgotten, and hopeless.

If you’re hungry to walk in everything God has for your life–but you’re not yet doing so–sometimes depression can set in.

Deep down inside you, there is something that knows when you’re frustrated, at a stalemate or staring at a wall. It’s called your spirit, and it’s the part of you that makes you, you. It’s the part of you that connects you to God and is filled with God. It’s the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, and you’re constantly receiving downloads from God in your spirit.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:

“‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 NKJV).

If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, your spirit is intimately connected with God. Because of that intimate, life-giving, life-receiving connection, sometimes you know things in your spirit that your mind doesn’t yet understand. (We often call this a “gut instinct.")

If your mind doesn’t understand the connection between your destiny and your emotions, your spirit knows when you’re not fulfilling your destiny.

Your spirit knows when you’re constricted. In your spirit, you can sense the bottleneck of anointing and vision God has put into you, but which has not come out. When the anointing, power, vision, and dreams which God has given you are not flowing out of you, depression results.

It’s a depression caused by a bottleneck of the anointing (Holy Spirit’s unction) and God’s power on your life.

Proverbs 18:4 (NKJV) says:

"The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook."

Well, the “wellspring of wisdom” is God the Holy Spirit. He is a flowing brook. He has to flow; He lives within you, but He is so powerful, and He has to have an outlet in your life.

To beat the depression that comes when you’re not walking in your calling, you’ve got to uncork the bottleneck. And here’s how to “uncork the bottleneck” in one word:

Start.

That’s it. Just start. Start the process of doing whatever God has called you to do. Start at the very beginning, with the smallest steps you can imagine.

Just start.

See, if you start—and keep at it every day—then in one month, three months, one year, three years, your life will be so far ahead of where you are now that you wouldn’t be able to recognize it if you were looking at it in this moment.

All it takes is to start ... And the next day, to start again.

Dreams require you to wake up every day and start one more time.

But if you’ll do that, you’ll find yourself receiving more anointing, more joy, and more excitement, passion, and fulfillment than you ever dreamed. You’ll look at yourself one day and realize you’re coming alive again, and being fully alive feels fully wonderful.

So here’s the key question I want to ask you today:

In five years, you’ll be five years older whether your life has changed or not. If nothing has changed in five years, will you be okay with that?

If you just said no, then start.

Start today. Start again tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.

Beat depression—beat stagnation. Beat the enemy because he is trying to keep your voice, your calling, and your ministry out of the Kingdom of God.

Give God something to work with. Start today, and let the anointing (the holy unction) in you flow out of you. Begin taking steps toward your dreams today. You’ll be glad you did.

Did this Bible Plan encourage you? If so, check out other complimentary resources by Jamie Rohrbaugh on her website, FromHisPresence.com, here!